Seminole State College and UpSource were among education and business partnerships honored during an Economic Development Partnership Recognition program held recently on the University of Central Oklahoma campus.

The Oklahoma State Regents’ Economic Development Partnership Recognition program honors outstanding partnerships that lead to significant contributions in educating and developing Oklahoma’s workforce.

The joint efforts of SSC and UpSource have resulted in great things happening in economic development for Seminole and surrounding communities, according to SSC President Dr. Jim Utterback.

UpSource was founded in 2001 with a vision that a dedicated workforce in North America could provide exceptional value in delivery of high quality contact center service.

UpSource believes that a partnership with both its customers and its employees works to deliver superior service.

The company’s strategy is built on the ideal that providing value to its customers requires training, development and support of employees, while deploying state of the art technology.

UpSource started with a single location contact center in northern Nova Scotia in 2001.

The company began with 40 employees and one client. Over the course of the next few years, the company acquired several additional clients and quickly outgrew the Nova Scotia location.

Faced with the need to rapidly expand, in 2008, UpSource partnered with an existing call center outsourcer in Seminole, Okla. – AmeriContact.

Now, more than five year later, UpSource remains in the Dan Boren Business Development Center and has grown to almost 100 employees at the Seminole location alone. During 2012, UpSource paid over $2 million in wages to its Seminole area employees, providing economic support to the community.

“The partnership between Seminole State College and UpSource has been extremely beneficial in economic efforts. We are proud of our partnership and pleased that our joint efforts have been recognized by the State Regents,” said SSC Vice President for Institutional Advancement Lana Reynolds.

To learn more about the Partnership Recognition Program visit www.okhighered.org/eco-devo.